A
particular favorite of mine, the King George III
"Cartwheel" two-pence of 1797.

If you enjoy history and artifacts that are
linked to a lot of historical themes simultaneously, and particularly
if you like old coins, as I do, then this one is easy to get attached
to.

These big heavy coppers are nearly unique in
the world of coinage.
They were minted only in 1797, and were without precedent, for earlier
pence were of silver, and earlier coppers were small and thin for
the most part.

By 1797 in Britain counterfeiting was rampant,
real coins were
getting worn out, and the supply of good small
denomination coinage was running low. So these giant copper
coins - the two-pence (above) and a smaller penny in the same design -
were
created. And they were the first coins minted on a steam-driven machine
- a bit of history in itself.

But what is dramatic about these coins is
their size! The two-pence
is an inch and three-quarters in diameter and a quarter inch thick.
It weighs a full two ounces, and the penny weighs one ounce, which made
them useful
as counter weights. That is one reason so many may have survived in
relatively good condition.

The design is simple but at the same time
elegant - the infamous King George III who we fought against in the
Revolution on
the obverse, and on the reverse the classic Britannia.
It was the unusual raised flat rim that runs around perimeter of the
coin that
gave it its nickname - "Cartwheel".

For me there is another connection
to
history. The date - 1797 -
is right in the middle of the period of inland
navigation and canals I
am researching. So when I hold one of these heavy coins in my hand, I
know that as it was being spent in England, here in New York the
finishing
touches were being put on one or the other of the works that helped
connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, long before the Erie Canal
was built.

And
of course in a coin like this, where the
face of the reigning monarch
is imprinted on every strike, one can enjoy comparisons of the coined
portrait with the real man, even if sometimes drawn in exaggeration
(below)

King
George III may have gone down in history as the mad king, or the
British
monarch who lost the American Colonies, but at least in one area he was
unsurpassed - the size and weight of his coinage in 1797!

The Age of Steam...

This
coin was the first in England to be minted on a steam powered press.
The press was designed by James Watt (below, right) and Mathew Boulton
(below, left), both pioneers in British steam technology.

They
began to apply steam power to everything, including at Boulton’s Soho
Factory. Here they had been making buttons, and the button department
also produced some copper merchant tokens, which are much like coins
(below).

The power of
the steam coining press was most impressively demonstrated in 1797 when
Boulton and Watt used their press to strike Britain’s first copper
pennies. Each was a solid copper disc of one ounce – sharply and evenly
struck beyond any coinage produced anywhere. They followed this up with
a two ounce two penny piece that immediately became known as a
“cartwheel”.

Scale..

The
"cartwheel" two-pence coin may be the largest and thickest coin in the
world. To hold this massive piece of 18th century copper is to give new
meaning to "putting in my two-cents". And compared to our own modern
equivalent, the copper one cent coin (below), it is a giant.

The one penny coin (below, left), companion piece to the 2-penny
"cartwheel", is just about as thick and almost as big (below). It is
hard to imagine having to carry a pocket-full of these to go shopping.

In the late 18th century for just
one of these pennies (above, left) you could buy enough candles to last
a week, and
for three of the 2-pence "cartwheels" (above, right) you could buy
enough soap for
the week.

So
a penny then was far more valuable than a penny today. And, ironically,
a penny FROM then.....one of the 1797 copper pence.... in decent
condition, can cost the collector up to $50.00. Would they have
believed that over 200 years ago??